Platys appetite for plants

[Suz]

I'm about going nuts keeping my platys in plants! They eat the roots off of floaters and take bites from leaves of substrate plants. Thinking about actually introducing duck weed as it might keep up with demand. There are only 4 female platys, and I do include algae wafers in their diet. They are fat little girls and sending fry into the world regularly. I added some miniature water lettuce yesterday, and the roots are obviously shorter this morning. Other than a constant influx of new plants, and possibly duck weed, do any of you have any suggestions? I'm tired of loosing my nice planted plants to these hearty little munchers!

Edited February 2, 2022 by Suz
Misspelled word

[Levi_Aquatics]

I personally wouldn’t intentionally add duckweed. I made that mistake lol. Anyway, you could try using some tougher plants like anubias or Java fern. I also like crypts as they are decently hardy. 

[Colu]

You could  add some spirulina flake to their diet if there going after your plants their not getting enough vegetable matter in their diet

[Suz]

On 2/2/2022 at 7:52 AM, Colu said:

You could  add some spirulina flake to their diet if there going after your plants their not getting enough vegetable matter in their diet

I was wondering about spirulina flakes! They really seem to enjoy the algae wafers I give them. But then, all the fishy kids seem to. Good suggestion. Can't hurt to give it a try. Thanks!

[Guppysnail]

I give my guppies repashy and lots of wafer foods both carnivore and algae and only a little flake pellet granule. It seems to keep them busy longer and satisfy their need to munch constantly. Floaters with roots are still a delicacy though 🙄 they do leave my emergegent growth pothos roots and lucky bamboo alone and they are great for sucking up nitrates. I also just introduced hikari freeze dried tubifex cubes that stick to the glass. That kept them busy for awhile. 

 

[PineSong]

Oh my. I WISH my platies would eat duckweed. My community tank has six adult platies, several juveniles and approximately 957 fry being born daily (oops!) and it's covered in duckweed. I have never seen evidence that my platies are biting or eating any plants. I have water sprite, anubias nana, swords, aponogeton, java ferns, duckweed, pogostemon octopus stellata, dwarf chain swords.